captioning sponsored by cbs >> we are here to nominate a president. and i got one in mind. >> we must come together for the man we can trust. >> i nominate him to be the standard bearer of the democratic party. >> neighborhood by neighborhood, this country is coming back because of all of you. >> we will finish what we started. >> we're going to keep president obama on the job. >> campaign 2012, the democratic national convention. from charlotte, north carolina, here is scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is the night president barack obama accepts the democratic nomination for the

second term and tries in his acceptance speech to convince voters that he deserves one. joining me in our coverage is bob schieffer up here in the anchor booth, and down on the convention floor, our cbs news campaign 2012 team. bye-bye, this is,sh, the second time mr. obama has accepted the nomination, in 2008 in denver, he was talking about hope and change. this time he's got a very different job to do. >> yeah, he's going to talk about hope and patience. the table has now been set, scott. bill clinton made a great speech last night, but people don't vote for the nominee. tonight we will hear from the guy who is running for the office, and it will be up to him now, to convince the american people that he knows the right way to go. >> pelley: and down on the podium, winding up the crowd right now, is mr. obama's running mate, vice president joe biden. let's listen to the rest of the vice president's speech. >> ... a president who will never quit on you. ( cheers and applause ).

there's one more thing. one more thing. our republican opponents are just dead wrong about-- america is not in decline. america is not in decline. i've got news for governor romney. and congressman ryan. gentlemen, never, ever, it never makes sense, it's never been a good bet to bet against the american people. ( cheers and applause ). never! my fellow americans, america is coming back. and we're not going back. and we have no intention of of downsizing the american dream.

never. never a good bet. ladies and gentlemen, in a moment, in a moment we're going to hear from a man whose whole life is a testament to the power of that dream. and whose presidency is the best hope to secure that dream for our children. for, you see, you see, we see a future. we really, honest to god do. we see a future. where everyone, rich and poor, does their part, and has a part, a future where we depend more on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad. a future where we're number one in the world again in college

graduation. a future where we promote the private sector, not the privileged sector. and a future-- and a future where women once again control their own choices, their destiny, and their own health care. ( cheers and applause ) and, ladies and gentlemen, barack and i see a future. it's in our d.n.a. where no one, no one is forced to live in the shadows of intolerance. ( cheers and applause ) folks, we see a future where america leads not only by the power-- the example of our

power, but by the power of our example. where we bring our troops home from afghanistan just as we proudly did from iraq. a future, a future where we fulfill the only truly sacred obligation we have as a nation, only truly sacred obligation we have is to prepare those who we send to war and care for them when they come home from war. and tonight-- ( applause ) tonight, tonight i want to acknowledge-- i want to acknowledge, as we should every night, the incredible debt we owe to the families of those

6,four 73 fallen angels. those 49,746 wounded. thousands critically. thousands who will need our help for the rest of their lives. folks, we never-- me must never, ever forget their sacrifice, and always keep them in our care and in our prayers. my fellow americans, we now-- we now-- we now find ourselves at the hinge of history, and the direction we turn is not figuratively, it's literally if your hands. it has been a truly great honor to serve you and to serve with barack, who has always stood up

with you for the past four years. i've seen him tested. i know his strength, his command, his faith. and i also know the incredible confidence he has in all of you. i know this man. yes, the work of recovery is not yet complete, but we are on our way. the journey of hope is not yet finished, but we are on our way. and the cause of change is not fully accomplished, but we are on our way. so i say to you tonight with absolute confidence, america's best days are ahead, and, yes, we are on our way! ( cheers and applause ) and in light-- in light of that horizon, the values that define us for the ideals that inspire us, there is only one choice, that choice is to move forward,

boldly forward and finish job and re-elect president barack obama. ( cheers and applause ). god bless you all. and may god protect our troops. god bless you. thank you. ( cheers and applause ). >> pelley: vice president joe biden accepting his party's nomination. once again, joe biden with his wife, dr. biden, on stage now. the race for president is essentially tied and has been for quite some time. that's what makes this night so important for the democrats. it is an opportunity to appeal to the american people in prime time and coast to coast. we'll be hearing from president

obama shortly. and i want to go now to nancy cordes, who has a preview of what the president is going to have to say. nancy. >> reporter: scott, campaign officials tell us the president's main goal 0 for every american to walk away with a very clear understanding of exactly what he would do if given another four years in office, and to that end, he's going to lay out a set of goals in five key areas -- manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit. and, scott, this is by design. they want to draw a very clear contrast with how they see governor romney's speech in tampa last week. they contend that it was full of platitudes, that it merely tore down president obama, but did not lay out a clear path forward, and that's what they want to do tonight. scott, the president has been working on this script, rewriting it all day long, practicing it to the last minute. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. we want to take just a moment

now to show you how this evening began here in charlotte because it was the most moving moments of either convention. gabrielle giffords, the former arizona congresswoman badly wounded in an assassination attempt last year, walked before the delegates, accompanied by her friend, florida congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, the chair of the democratic national committee. giffords, who has spent a year and a half learning how to walk and talk again, led the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ( cheers and applause )

>> gabby! gabby! >> pelley: after all, these conventions are in part a celebration of the american spirit. bob schieffer, the stakes really couldn't be higher for the democrats. there are 62 days until election day. they don't have many more opportunities like this one. >> reporter: well, you know, there's a very small number of americans, according to the polls, who simply have not made up their minds. that's who the president will be aiming this address at tonight. this thing is dead even. very few people in the key battleground states are going to be the ones who decide how this election comes out. that's what this is all about.

all of this has been planned for this night, for the president to lay out for the american people where he wants to take the country. over the next four years. >> pelley: norah o'donnell, the cohost of "cbs this morning" is down on the convention floor. norah. >> reporter: scott, if you talk with the president's political advisers, they also see these national polls that show this race is almost dead even, but they say they don't care about those polls because the presidency is not decided by the popular vote. it is decided by the electoral college. they care about the polls in those battleground states that possible just talked about. nt that's what the president's goal tonight is to reach out to those undecided voters, those persuadable voters in those key battleground states. remember, obama won by a very large margin in 2008 over mccain, so he could lose florida, ohio, north carolina, indiana, and virginia, and still win the presidency. there is a narrow path for mitt

romney to win this election. and one of the president's top advisers said to me today they feel confident at this point that they've been able to keep a lid on mitt romney from moving the numbers up. we'll see what happens after tonight and the unemployment numbers that come out tomorrow gillette highlight last night of course was the speech by president clinton. agree or disagree with the policies, he gave a great political speech. byron pits is down with the delegation from florida tonight. byron, how are they going to capitalize on what mr. clinton had to say? >> reporter: scott, we have been talking with delegates this evening who say there is a confidence in this hall tonight that did not exist two nights ago. they siit comes in great part from the speech president clinton delivered in this arena last night. i was talking to a state senator from florida who plans to get copies of the speech and taking it to barber exphops beauty salons in her home district.

we want president obama, she says, tonight, to give us a vision, yes, but equally important, to inspice. that inspiration, she says, scott, will be the fuel these delegates will use in the final leg of this marathon beginning in the morning. >> pelley: our cbs news political director is joh dickerson, and he is down there among the delegates as well. john. >> reporter: scott, a senior romney adviser said that their best negative ad is the weak economy because it's always running on a news station somewhere. 10 hours after the president speaks tonight, the unemployment figures will come out. the president knows what those numbers are. if they're not very good that may put a quick expiration date on whatever feeling he's able to create in this hall. we have seen this throughout the race. the polls have stayed stuck, and big events haven't seemed to move them. the hope in the obama campaign is something can break through. there's a line or a feeling the president gets through tonight that will help them in that tough news environment and live hatside the hall.

>> pelley: john has been talking about how this race has been tied, it's been tied relentlessly for weeks. not even half a billion dollars in negative advertising has seemed to make a difference. >> reporter: no, and it's been stuck, as you say, scott, for a long, long time. that's why i think one of the things that the president will try to do tonight, in addition to talking with that small group of undecide voteres, this thing may come out that it still will be very tight on election days, and those undecided voters may still be undecided. they might even go to the polls. what both sides have to do is get out their base. that may be the key to the elizabeth. the candidate, they get his people to the polls, casting the ballots. so enthusiasm is one of the big things, and that's why people here were so happy with bill clinton's speech last night. he really stirred them up. he had these people-- they stood up. he spoke for nearly an hour and a lot of the people in this hall

stood up for the entire speech. that's the kind of enthusiasm that they can get those people to the polls on election day, and they've got to keep that going. >> pelley: thanks, bob. president obama's acceptance speech is am category up shortly. cbs news coverage of this final night of the democratic national convention will continue from charlotte.

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lipton. drink positive! >> pelley: the best advocates for the candidates in both of these conventions have been their wives. michelle obama gave a stellar performance earlier this week, and you knew that the democrats just had to bring her back for an encore. that will be happening in just a few minutes when she returns to the podium to introduce her husband. the convention wasn't supposed to be here at all tonight. the plan was to have the

president's speech outdoors in the stadium where the carolina panters play. there was to be a crowd of 65, 000, but they canceled that because of rain in the forecast. well, here is a live shot of that stadium now. it is dark, and there is not a drop of rain falling in the vicinity here in charlotte. we are now back in this arena. instead of a crowd of 65,000 listening to the president's acceptance speech, similar to what we saw in 2008 at mile high stadium in denver, we will have a crowd of about 20,000 in this arena. earlier today, mitt romney, the candidate of the republican party, said that he would not be watching mr. obama's acceptance speech. nancy cordes is down on the convention floor. nancy. >> reporter: well, scott, governor romney was asked why he wasn't going to be watching the speech, and he said he just wasn't interested if it was going to be a bunch of empty

perhapses. similarly, the obama campaign said last week president obama didn't watch governor romney's speech, though he read about it later. the two sides are trying to make a point here, scott, which is they are running their own campaigns and they're not going to make decisions based on what the other side said or does, or at least that's what they'd like us to believe. >> pelley: let's switch over to john dickerson, john. >> reporter: one of the debates between the two campaigns has been who is more specific? you heard earlier tonight, vice president joe biden make fun of the republican ticket saying they weren't specific at all. tonight the president's team says the president will be specific. he'll mention five things, goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit. but mitt romney offered five goals, too. er the question will be whether either side is really being specific or just being specific in naming kind of lofty goals but not telling us exactly how they're going to get there. >> pelley: the convention is

being entertained now by a film which features former president clinton. and norah o'donnell has been learning some things from her sources about how the campaign intends to use president clinton going forward. norah. >> reporter: that's right, and advisers say that they thought that speech by bill clinton was vintage bill clinton, so strong, they were so pleased by it, that they've now secured an agreement to get president bill clinton to hit the road on behalf of the president obama, sending him specifically to some battleground states, including ohio and florida, in the coming weeks, and they hope that he'll bring that same message that he delivered here on the stage out on the battleground. one other interesting thing is the president tonight, his goal is to talk about his vision for the next four years. to try and convince americans to have the patience, to just give him one more term in office so he can finish the job undone. he is also going to have to make the case that he can work with congress to do that. of course, working with congress

has been something that has stymied this president's agenda over the last two years, at loggerhead with republicans in congress. what will president obama say tonight about that bipartisan spirit that's needed? >> pelley: he will begin saying it here very shortly. in the meantime, byron pitts is down on the convention floor talking to some of the delegates tonight as they await the president. >> reporter: scott, a short time ago i talked to governor deval patrick, the governor of massachusetts, a personal friend of president obama. the comparison between the two elections, both historic. he said he talked to his friend in recent days, talked about his spenchg and he said we should expect to see a more forceful president obama tonight than we've seen in the past. scott. >> pelley: and we are watching the end of this film that the convention is seeing. president obama will be coming out shortly. his wife will have a few remarks before she brings her husband out. bob schieffer, it strikes me,

it's a very different situation the president is in. before he was talking hope and change. ( cheers and applause ). well, and here comes mrs. obama now. let's listen in. >> thank you so much. tonight, i am so thrilled and so honored and so proud to introduce the love of my life, the father of our two girls, and the president of the united states of america, barack obama. ( cheers and applause ). ♪ ♪

>> thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you so much.

>> four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! >> thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. michelle, i love you so much. a few nights ago, everybody was reminded just what a lucky man i am. ( cheers and applause ) malia and sasha, we are so proud of you. ( cheering ) td, yes, you do have to go to school in the morning.

( laughter ) and, joe biden, thank you for being the very best vice president i could have ever rsped for. ( cheers and applause ). and being a strong and loyal friend. madam chairwoman, delegates, i accept your nomination for president of the united states. ( cheers and applause )

now, the first time i addressed this convention in 2004, i was a younger man. a senate candidate from illinois who spoke about hope. not blind optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty. that dogged faith in the future which has pushed this nation forward even when the odds are great, even when the road is long. eight years later, that hope has been tested by the cost of war, by one of the worst economic crises in history, and by political gridlock that's left us wondering whether it's still even possible to tackle the challenges of our time.

i know campaigns can seem small, even silly sometimes. trivial things become big distraction. serious issues become soundbites. the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. if you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am i. ( laughter ) ( applause ) but when all is said and done, when you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation. over the next few years, big decisions will be made in washington on jobs, the economy, taxes, and deficits, energy, education, war and peace. decisions that will have a huge

impact on our lives and on our children's lives for decades to come. and on every issue, the choice you face won't be just be between two candidates or two parties. it will be a choice between two different paths for america. a choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future. ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. ( cheers and applause ). the values my grandfather grandfather defend as a soldier in patop's army. the values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly line while he was gone. they knew they were part of something larger, a nation that triumphed over fascism and oppression. a nation where the most innovative businesses turned out the world's best products and everyone shared in that pride

and success, from the corner office to factory floor. my grandparents were given the chance to go to college by their own, buy their own home, and fulfill the basic bargain at the heart of america's story. the promise that hard work will pay off. that responsibility will be rewarded. that everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by same rules from main street to wall street to washington, d.c. ( cheers and applause ) and i ran for president because i saw that basic bargain slipping away. i began my career helping people in shadow of a shuttered steel mill at a time when too many good jobs were starting to move overseas, and by 2008, we had seen nearly a decade if which families struggled with costs

that kept rising, but paychecks that didn't. folks wracking up more and more debt just to make the mortgage or pay tuition, put gas in the car, or food on the table. and when the house of cards collapsed in the great recession, millions of innocent americans lost their jobs, their homes, their life savings, a tragedy from which we're still fighting to recover. now, our friends down in tampa at the republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with america. but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. they want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan. and that's because all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they've had for e last 30 years-- have a surplus? try a tax cut.

deficit too high. try another. feel a cold coming on? take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning. ( cheers and applause ). now, i've cut taxes for those who need it. middle class families, small businesses. but i don't believe that another round of tax breaks for million arizona will bring good jobs to our shores or pay down our deficit. i don't believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow the economy or help us compete with the scientists and engineers coming out of china. ( cheers and applause ). after all we've been through, i don't believe that rolling back regulations on wall street will

help the small business woman expand or the laid off construction worker keep his home. we have been there. we've tried that, and we're not going back. we are moving forward, america. ( cheers and applause ). now, i won't pretend the path i'm offering is quick or easy. i never have. you didn't elect me to tell me what you wanted to hear. you leathed me to tell you the truth. the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve chwllenges that have built up over decades. it will require common effort and shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that franklin roosevelt pursued during only crisis worse than this one. ( applause ) and by the way, those of us who

carry on his party's legacy should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from washington. but know this, america-- our problems can be solved. ( cheers and applause ) our challenges can be met. the path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place, and i'm asking you to choose that future. i'm asking you to rally. around a set of goals for your country, goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit, real, achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. that's what we can do in the next four years, and that is why i am running for a second term as president of the united states. ( cheers and applause )

>> four more years! >> we can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs. after a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we're getting back to basics and doing what america's always done best-- we are making things again. ( applause ) i've met workers in detroit and toledo who feared they'd never build another american car. ( cheers and applause ). and today they can't build them fast enough because we reinvented a dying auto industry that's back on top of the world. ( cheers and applause ) i've worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to america, not because our workers make less pay but because we make better products. ( cheers and applause )

because we work harder and smarter than anyone else. i've signed trade agreements that are helping our companies sell more goods to millions of new customers, goods that are stamped with three proud words "made in america." ( cheers and applause ) >> u.s.a.! u.s.a.! u.s.a.! >> and after a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years. and now you have a choice. we can get more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plant and train new workers and create new jobs here in the united states of america. ( cheers and applause ) we can help big factories and

small businesses double their exports, and if we choose this path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years. you can make that happen. you can choose that future. you can choose the path where we can control more of our own energy. we raise fuel standardses so by the middle of the next decade, car asks trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. ( applause ) we have doubled our use of renewable energy and thousands of americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. in the last year alone, we cut oil imports by one million barrels a day, more than any administration in receipt history. and today, the united states of america is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two decades. ( cheers and applause ).

so now you have a choice. between the strategy that reverses this progress or one that buildses on it. we've opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years and we'll open more. but unlike my opponent, i will not let oil companies write this country's energy plans or endanger our coastlines or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. we're offering a better path. ( cheers and applause ). we're offering a better path. where we, a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal. where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and trucks. where construction workers build homes and factories that waste

less energy. where we develop 100-year supply of natural gas that's right beneath our feet. if you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020, and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. ( applause ) and, yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. more droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. they are a threat to our children's future. and in this election, you can do something about it. ( cheers and applause ). you can choose a future where more americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to

compete. no matter how old they are or how much money they have. education was the gateway to opportunity for me. it was the gateway for michelle. it was the gateway for most of you. and now, more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life. for the first time in a generation, nearly every state has answered our call to raise their standards for teaching and learning. some of the worst schools in the country have made real gains in math and reading. millions of students are paying less for college today because we finally took on a system that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on banks and lenders. and now, you have a choice. we can gut education or we can decide that in the united states of america, no child should have her dreams deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school. no family should have to set aside a college acceptance

letter because they don't have the money. no company should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn't find any with the right skills here at home. ( cheers and applause ). that's not our future. that is not our future. a government has a role in this. but teachers must inspire. principals must lead. parents must instill a thirst for learning, and students, you gotta do the work. and together, i promise you, we can out-education and out-compete any nation on earth. so help me, help me recruit 100,000 math and science teachers within 10 years, and improve early childhood education. ( cheers and applause ). help give two million workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that will lead directly to a job.

help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next 10 years. we can meet that goal together. ( cheers and applause ). you can choose that future for america. that's our future. you know, in a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven. four years ago, i promised to end the war in iraq. we did. ( cheers and applause ) i promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. and we have. we've blunted the taliban's momentum in afghanistan and in 2014, our longest war will be over. ( cheers and applause )

a new tower rises above the new york skyline. al qaeda is on the path of to defeat, and osama bin laden is dead. ( cheers and applause ). >> u.s.a.! u.s.a.! >> tonight, we pay tribute to the americans who still serve in harm's way. we are forever in debt to a generation who sacrificed has made this country safer and more respected. we will never forget you, and so long as i'm commander in chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known. when you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you've served us, because no one who fights for this country

should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads or the care that they need when they come home. ( cheers and applause ). around the world, we strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear boston police we've reasserted our power across the pacific and stood up to china on behalf of our workers. from burma to libya, to south sudan, we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings, men and women, christians and muslims and jews. but for all the progress that we've made, challenges remain. terrorist plots must be disrupted. europe's crisis must be contained. our commitment to israel's security must not waiver. and neither must our pursuit of peace.

the iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions. the change sweeping across the arab world must be defind not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists but the hopes and aspirations of people reaching for the same rights we celebrate here today. so now we have a choice. my opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy. ( applause ) but from all that we've seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost america so dearly. after all, you don't call russia our number one enemy, not al qaeda, russia, unless you're still stuck in a cold war mind warp. ( cheers and applause ).

you might not be ready for diplomacy with beijing if you can't visit the olympics without insulting our closest ally. ( cheers and applause ) my opponent. my opponent said that it was tragic to end the war in iraq. and he won't tell us how he'll end the war in afghanistan. well, i have, and i will. ( cheers and applause ). and while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our joint chiefs don't even want, i will use the money we're no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work, rebuilding roadses and bridges and schools, and runways because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over $1 trillion, it's time to do some nation building right here at

home. ( cheers and applause ) you can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class. independent experts say that might plan would cut our deficit by $4 trilog $4 trillion. and last summer i worked with republicans in congress to cut $1 billion in spending because those of us who believe government can be a force for good should work harder than anyone to reform it so it's leaner and more efficient and more responsive to the american people. i want to reform the tax code so that simple, fair, and ask the welliest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000, the same rate we had

when bill clinton was president, the same rate we had when our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history and a whole lot of millionaires to boot. now, i'm still eager to reach an agreement based on the principles of my bipartisan debt commission. no party has a monopoly on wisdom. no democracy works without compromise. i want to get this done, and we can get it done. but when governor romney and his friends in congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy, well, what did bill clinton call it-- you do the arithmetic. you do the math. ( cheers and applause ) i refuse to go along with that. and as long as i'm president, i never will. ( cheering ) i refuse to ask middle class

families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their kids just to pay for another millionaire's tax cuts. ( cheers and applause ). i refuse to ask students to pay more for college or kick children out of head start programs to eliminate health insurance for millions of americans who are poor and elderly or disabled, all so those with the most can pay less. i'm not going along with that. ( cheers and applause ). and i will never, i will never turn medicare into a voucher. ( cheers and applause ). no american should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. they should retire with care and the dignity that they have earned. yes, we will reform and strengthen medicare for the long

haul, but we'll do it by reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more. and we will keep the promise of social security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to wall street. ( cheers and applause ). this is the choice we now face. this is what the election comes down to. over and over, we've been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way, that since government can't do everything, it should do almost nothing. if you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. if a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that's

the price of progress. if you can't afford to start a business or go to college, take my opponents' advice, and borrow money from your parents. you know what? that's not who we are. that's not what this country is about. as americans, we believe we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that no man or government can take away. we insist on personal responsibility, and we celebrate individual initiative. we're not entitled to success. we have to earn it. we honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world's ever known. we also believe in something called citizenship.

( cheers and applause ). citizenship. a word at the very heart of our founding, a word at the very essence of our democracy. idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and future generations. we believe that when a ceo pays his auto workers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company does better. ( applause ) we believe that when a family can no longer be tricked into signing a mortgage they can't afford, that family's protected but so is the value of other people's homes. and so is the entire economy. ( applause ) we believe the little girl who is offered an escape from poverty by a great teacher or a grant for college could become the next steve jobs or the scientist who cures cancer, or the president of the united

states, and it is in our power to give her that chance. ( cheers and applause ). we know that churches and charities can often make more of a difference than a poverty program alone. we don't want handouts for people who refuse to help themselveses and we certainly don't want bailouts for banks that break the rules. ( cheers and applause ). we don't think that government can solve all of our problems but we don't think that the government is the source of all of our problems any more than our welfare recipients or corporations or unions or immigrants or gays or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles. ( cheers and applause ).

because, because america, we understand that this democracy is ours. we, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights. that our destinies are bound together. they freedom which asks only what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. ( cheers and applause ). and citizens, we understand that america's not about what can be done for us. it's about what can be done by

us together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. that's what we believe. so, you see, the election four years ago wasn't about me. it was about you. my fellow citizens, you were the change. you're the reason there's a little girl with a heart disorder in phoenix who will get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can't limit her coverage. you did that. ( cheers and applause ). you're the reason a young man in colorado who never thought he'd be able to afford his dream of earning a medical degree is about to get that chance. you made that possible.

you're the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she's ever called home. ( cheers and applause ). why selfless soldiers won't be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love. why thousands of families have finally been able to say to their loved ones who served us so bravely, "welcome home. welcome home." you did that. ( cheers and applause ) you did that. you did that. if you turn away now, if you turn away now, if you buy into sin sim that the change we fought for isn't possible, well, change will not happen. if you give up on the idea that your choice can make a

difference, then other voices will fill the void-- the lobbyists and special interests, the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election, and those who are trying to make it harder for you to vote. washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves. ( cheers and applause ). only you can make sure that doesn't happen. only you have the power to move us forward. you know, i recognize that times have changed since i first spoke to this convention. times have changed and so have i. i'm no longer just a candidate. i'm the president.

( cheers and applause ) and-- and that-- and then-- >> four more years! >> and that means i know what it means to send young american spoz battle. i've held in my arms mothers and fathers of those who didn't return. i've shared the pain of families who have lost their homes and the frustration of workers who have lost their jobs. if the critics are right that i've made all my decision based on poles, then i must not be very good at reading. and while i'm very proud of what we achieved together, i'm far

more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what lincoln meant when he said, "i have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that i had no place else to go." ( cheers and applause ) but as i stand here tonight, i have never been more hopeful about america. not because i think i have all the answers. not because i'm naive about the magnitude of our challenges. i'm hopeful because of you. the young woman i met at a science fair who won national recognition for her biology research while living with her family at a homeless shelter, she gives me hope. ( cheers and applause ) the autoworker who won the lottery after his plant almost closed but kept coming to work